Professionals: how to help parents

Some parents are looking for basic guidance or ideas for how
they can give their child the best upbringing. Others might be worried
about how they’re doing and need some reassurance or suggestions. As a professional, one of
the best ways you can help parents is to give them the resources they need to make their own decisions.

Helping parents build confidence

It’s tempting to tell parents what to do when they have a problem. It seems like the quickest way to reach a solution. But when parents get all their answers and solutions from professionals, they can become dependent, coming back every time they have a problem.

As a professional service provider, if you can help families make their own decisions about their own lives, families develop confidence to keep making decisions in the future.

Family-centred practice

Family-centred practice is one way of helping families make their own decisions.

Family-centred practice is when service providers work in partnership with families to reach goals. Families get the information and tools they need so they can manage some issues themselves. Family-centred practice works across a wide range of human services.

Some of the things to aim for if you’re interested in providing family-centred practice are:

being sensitive and responsive to all different kinds of families, including those from socioeconomically, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

basing services on what families want

being flexible in how you provide services, thinking about what’s most useful to the particular family you’re working with

acknowledging and respecting that parents are the experts about their children and their family circumstances

giving families the information they need to make informed choices

helping families get in touch with informal or community supports and resources, rather than relying solely on formal resources

forming strong links with other mainstream and specialist child and family services to make sure you know where to point families when they need help.

If you’re a health professional

Health professionals play a valuable role in the lives of families. It’s worth considering how family focused your practice is for the following reasons:

If you’ve built a good partnership with parents, you’re better equipped to help solve problems. For example, if you’re aware that parents feel anxious about a behaviour strategy for their child, you can sit with them and talk further about it.

Each family is different, and understanding a family’s particular characteristics and needs will help you provide directed support.

Using a family-centred approach

A family-centred approach is increasingly being recognised as improving outcomes for families. There are three main things to consider – your overall approach, your approach to supporting children and your approach to supporting parents.

Your overall approach

All families are different, and support works best when it takes the family’s specific characteristics into account.

Parents will always know their children and their family best.

All families have strengths and are able to work on developing these further.

The wellbeing and development of a child depends upon the wellbeing of all other family members and of the family as a whole.

The wellbeing of a family depends upon the quality of their informal social supports and the availability of formal support services.

Approach to supporting children

Ensure health, safety and good nutrition for children.

Work on developing a warm, caring relationship with children.

Look out for and respond to children’s cues and clues.

Cater for the fact that every child is different. Be aware of each child’s interests and strengths so you can work together on building them.

Surround children with language.

Encourage exploration and play.

Approach to supporting parents

Work on building connections with parents. Parents can feel daunted or confused by professional language, and can be overcome with worry if their child has a health problem. If they know they can trust you, it will really help.

Even when there’s not much you can do to help, being available and supportive provides focus and security for families.

Provide clear, truthful information and context.

Try not to make assumptions about what parents ‘need to know’.

Listen to parents carefully when they ask questions and acknowledge the anxiety that comes with not knowing.

Provide support without judging.

If there is a crisis, accept and respect parents who are confused or highly emotional. Try to remember that a crisis can happen to anybody.

Promote bonding and connection between parent and child. Talk to parents about noticing helpful signals as they bond with their baby. Support them as they learn to tune in to their child and attend to their child’s needs.

Try to see your job as a partnership with parents as they care for their children in whatever ways they can.

Centre for Community Child Health (2003). The Early Years Project: Refocusing community based services for young children and their families: A Literature Review. Melbourne: Royal Children’s Hospital. Retrieved July 16, 2014, from http://www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/ccch/EY_LitRev_Acad.pdf.